TOOL & DIE

Based on graphics alone I would guess late '80s, and pressing play does nothing to sway my initial hunch. Dancefloor proto-industrial/dance jams with appropriately distorted (but sparse) vocals and tinny metal(lic) guitars dropped in only when necessary. Only three songs here, and while they are all well perform their task effectively, the closer "A Limit" is far and away the best jammer. I know nothing about this outfit, but I cannot fathom why they are being featured here while some third rate acid house band from 1987 is probably embarking on a reunion tour as I type this...

TOOL & DIE

MUTANT VIDEO // MEMORY SMOKER

MUTANT VIDEO should be no stranger to Friends Of The Escape, and their latest effort is arguably even more...trying. The sound is uncomfortable, sparse and dark - and that is the point. This tape is shared with MEMORY SMOKER, fellow Escape veterans and (hopefully) familiar to fans of the weird, whose latest contribution is decidedly more subdued than their last - which somehow just makes it that much more difficult. I'm not sure if these are sounds or experiences, but I want to keep deciding over and over...preferably in the dark.

CONFUSION IS HEAVEN, REALITY IS HELL

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For all in the Bay Area, might I suggest that you attend the art and sound program presented tonight  by FEEDING. Of course today's post is in honor of this showing (one third of MUTANT VIDEO is also one half of FEEDING), and I have also breathed new life into two of the older PIG HEART TRANSPLANT posts in honor of the presentation (the Brain of PHT is the other half of FEEDING). EconoJam Records in Oakland. Attendance is highly recommended.

STATEMENT

I posted a couple of STATEMENT demos in the early days of The Escape (links I desperately need to repair, along with the several dozen requests currently languishing in my comments section....I will. I promise), but I might like this fifth demo even better. STATEMENT were a solo anarcho/activist project who spanned the musical spectrum over the course of their existence, and this collection of post punk and proto-indie oddities manages to capture slight bits of all of the weirdness that one Patrick Rat Poole conjured up over the years (presumably in his bedroom). "Strike Back" is the standout track, though this tape is so all over the place that there will probably be a different focus on every listen. Animal and human rights, well thought out politics in general, and generally catchy ditties make this 22 track cassette mandatory, and while the title reads Not For Punks, I would suggest that it should be for punks...but perhaps modern punks place the value of sound and status over that of content? Maybe STATEMENT was right after all.

NOT FOR PUNKS

The internet tells me that the man responsible for these quirky and out there bedroom anarcho sounds also did stints in CRACKED COP SKULLS and RIOT/CLONE which, oddly, makes sense. And yeah, I know that I linked this post to two older posts with dead links - I'll fix them really really soon. I swear.

BAD ENERGY

Do you ever listen to punk and think that maybe the people making the punk you are listening to know something that you don't? That's BAD ENERGY in a nutshell - this shit is smart and deliberate, there is not an accident to be found anywhere in these five tracks or the seven minutes that they occupy. Feisty, ass shaking, aggressive, punk as shit sounds from Philadelphia. These sounds that were made by people from other bands that you (should) care about, but that's not the important part here, the important part is that "Community Creeper DFC" is perhaps the greatest punk song I've heard in 2014. I mean, the year is not yet half over, but still....

BAD ENERGY

OLD SKIN

I got a hair up my ass to rip a few metal tapes that I've had in the pile for a while. Since it's not my forte or my genre of choice, I tend to go on hunches and recommendations (or cool looking covers), but I have no idea how this OLD SKIN tape came into my possession. Whatever god, friend or band was responsible: Thank you. Five tracks of screaming black death, this is what I wanted VENOM to sound like after I had heard how evil and scary they were...but compared to OLD SKIN, VENOM are little more than glorified candy asses. This is pure filth, and a reminder that sometimes those hairs might be up my ass for a reason.

OLD SKIN

There is also a current vaguely metalcore band from Manchester called OLD SKIN who were kinda decent when I listened to them. And there is also a solo acoustic folks dude from St. Louis who calls himself OLD SKIN, and while I have to admit that the name probably fits the acoustic guy better than the other two. But the metal band from Seattle is still better.

HURE

The freaks at Trim Tab Tapes in Germany are consistently interesting....and pretty consistently awesome too. HURE squeeze out twenty minutes of mind altering sound on this tape - waves of distorted percussion crash repeatedly at your feet while a guitar embarks on an exercise in repetition, single notes looped to the point of insanity. Vocals are more like ominous shadows, lurking in and hovering around the complete cacophony of the whole demonstration. Even a casual listen will result in mental exhaustion.

HURE

LETHAL AGGRESSION

Mid '80s drug fueled nihilistic hardcore from New fucking Jersey. There is nothing even remotely subtle about these seven ragers - there's a little metal sneaking into the program, but it's in the context of screaming bloody mayhem...the title of this demo provides pretty good insight into where these dudes were coming from. These are not friendly sounds.

FROM THE CUNT OF THE FUCKING WHORE

New Jersey Drug Core